Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) operates out of Louisville, Colorado. The company has developed two versions of its Dream Chaser system, a cargo carrying module and a passenger module.

Unlike Cygnus, Orbital’s resupply capsule which burns up on re-entry, and unlike SpaceX’s Dragon capsule which theoretically is capable of reuse, Dream Chaser is a partially reusable space plane designed to withstand a minimum of 15 missions with 90% component reusability. It is 9 meters (30 feet) in length, and roughly 1/4 the size of NASA’s former Space Shuttles.

On dedicated cargo flights the space plane portion is accompanied by an attached cargo capsule. Upon separation from ISS and prior to de-orbit, the space plane jettisons the cargo module which burns up on re-entry. But the rest of it returns to Earth using a low-gravity (1.5 Gs) re-entry followed by a horizontal runway landing.

For crewed flights Dream Chaser is 100% reusable and like Boeing and SpaceX, SNC has ambitions to see it used to transport human crews to low-Earth orbit destinations. Up until now, however, NASA had made SNC a third commercial option awarding it no resupply or human crewed mission contracts. With this new contract Dream Chaser is finally going to fly. The contract is for a minimum of 6 cargo service missions. The company gets the chance to demonstrate a technology once considered moribund.

Why do I say that? Because Dream Chaser started out as a NASA concept to be deployed as a space taxi after the heavy hauling Space Shuttle was no longer needed. The first design concept appeared in the early 1980s and was was designated the HL-20 with HL designating horizontal landing. But NASA, under budgetary constraints, abandoned the HL-20. Former NASA engineers and scientists, however, chose to keep the Dream Chaser dream alive by creating SNC.

Now more than three decades later the space plane taxi is alive and well and available in two flavours. One is the Dream Chaser Cargo System. The second is the Dream Chaser Space System. The new contract covers the first of these two but don’t be surprised if NASA in the near future chooses the second for crewed flights.

So what are the differences?

The cargo system version (seen below) can deliver more than 2.5 tons of pressurized or unpressurized cargo to ISS. The cargo system uses a folding-wing design to allow it to fit inside rocket fairings atop a number of the commercial launch systems NASA uses.  It can also serve as an orbital disposal system with the cargo module left to burn up in the upper atmosphere. But experiment results and equipment from ISS can be returned to Earth using the space plane portion of the system.

The space system is a space taxi (seen below in front of the Space Shuttle Atlantis) capable of delivering 7 crew members plus cargo to ISS. It comes with windows, an environmental life-support system and sits atop a launch system. Currently the rocket of choice is the United Launch Alliance, Atlas 5. The space system is capable of a powered launch abort followed by a runway landing.

Both systems feature autonomous launch and landing capability. Both use non-toxic consumables including propellants. Both can be used to boost the orbit of ISS when docked.

In the two images below you see the different configurations for Dream Chaser in launch mode. On the left is the cargo system with folded wings sitting inside a rocket fairing. While on the right is the space system giving a flight crew a much safer and unobstructed position on top of a launch system.

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• SpaceX’s Dragon
• Boeing’s CST-100
• SNC Space Systems’ Dream Chaser

SpaceX has received $400 million from NASA. It leads the other companies in terms of its development achievements and plans to launch a first human crewed flight in 2015 atop its own Falcon-9 launch vehicle. Dragon will seat seven passengers. It incorporates abort capability all the way to orbit, something the Shuttle never had. It also features a powered descent system for landing on the ground (see picture below). Of those receiving contracts from NASA, only SpaceX has actually flown.

Boeing received $460 million. Its capsule is also designed for a crew of seven and will be launched using the Atlas V rocket from United Launch Alliance. The capsule looks similar to the Apollo and uses some of its legacy and proven technology. It also incorporates some of the Orion capsule features, NASA’s own crewed capsule designed for future Deep Space missions. The CST-100 will also feature an abort system in the event of a problem at launch. First test flights are planned for  2016.

SNC also known as Sierra Nevada received $212.5 million for its mini-shuttle space plane called Dream Chaser. Dream Chaser was first conceived as a NASA mini-shuttle but the project was cancelled only to be revived by private enterprise. Launched from the top of an Atlas V rocket, Dream Chaser plans to make its first orbital flight in 2016. An approach and landing test is scheduled for late 2012. Dream Chaser also has the capability of carrying a crew of seven into orbit. Of the three commercial launchers only Dream Chaser will be capable of landing on a runway in similar fashion to the Space Shuttle.

Until these American companies have their spacecraft ready to go the United States will still contract Russia and its proven Soyuz technology to send its astronauts into orbit and rendezvous with the International Space Station.

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